TSA says it is doing its best to prepare for the busy summer season, but air industry observers warn it might be too little too late

A messy security checkpoint situation at Denver International Airport could get much worse under a potentially record-breaking crush of summer travelers, say officials who are urging passengers to get to the hub three hours before their flights.

The Transportation Security Administration has shed nearly 10 percent of its screeners in the past three years, a period in which air travel has grown 9 percent. The result: interminable lines filled with frustrated fliers at DIA and airports across the country.

"I think the perfect storm right now is that capacity definitely outpaces the TSA ability for screening," said Gregory Feith, a Colorado-based aviation safety consultant. "It's probably going to get worse unless staffing is increased."

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said last week he is "acutely aware" of the delays and that TSA has made solving the problem a priority. The agency has cleared more overtime pay, is racing to hire new officers and is increasing the use of canines trained to detect explosives.

Johnson also said he will petition Congress for more money to expand the number of airport screeners working during peak hours.

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But Feith said backfilling the staffing gap won't happen overnight. And other observers worry the efforts may be too little too late with Memorial Day — the first big test of the busy summer season — just a few weeks away.

"We were watching what was essentially a slow developing car or train wreck," said Jonathan Grella, executive vice president for public affairs for the U.S. Travel Association. "We are hoping that all involved will be able to slam on the brakes before it's too late."

Most DIA travelers make it through security in 20 minutes or less, TSA spokeswoman Carrie Harmon said.

Anecdotal data collected by spot checkers who watch passengers move through DIA security lines show average wait times more than doubled to 11 to 14 minutes in the first quarter of this year compared with four to six minutes in the same period of 2015, airport spokesman Heath Montgomery said.

Harmon said the number of passengers screened at DIA this year increased 8.7 percent in January, compared with January 2015, and rose 11.8 percent in February and 3.2 percent in March.

DIA, the nation's fifth-busiest airport, is expecting the June-to-September summer travel season to set traffic records. Early forecasts suggest July could be the busiest month ever, Montgomery said.

Already, DIA is advising passengers to arrive as much as three hours before their boarding time to have enough cushion to pass through security.

"The bottom line is that passengers should expect us to be busy overall this summer and get to the airport early," Montgomery said.

The airport has no control over TSA or the way security checkpoints are staffed, but DIA officials have expressed their concerns to the agency and offered to help in any way they can, he said.

In recent weeks some passengers flying from Denver have reported waiting more than an hour to clear security.

On April 23, midmorning security line waits stretched to 90 minutes for some people. Two days earlier, passengers posted photos on social media showing a security queue that snaked into baggage claim.

"I had never seen it so packed," said Kara Hammer, who tweeted about her 40-minute DIA security line wait before boarding a flight to Las Vegas about 9 a.m. April 21. "It was just a mass of people. You could just tell they were understaffed."

U.S. Travel Association officials worry the security delays will make people think twice about flying.

"If you have to arrive at the airport three hours before your flight and are only in the air for about half that time, there is going to be frustration," Grella said.

On Friday, Airlines For America, a trade organization for U.S. air carriers, launched IHateTheWait.com, which encourages passengers stuck in long security lines to use the hashtag #IHateTheWait on Twitter and Instagram to help keep the issue on TSA's front burner.

Industry experts point out that screening delays are bad for airport retailers and restaurants, who are being ignored by passengers racing to their planes, and for airlines, which face the expensive — and complicated — consequences when a passenger has to be rebooked.

United Airlines and Southwest Airlines said they are working with the TSA to improve security efficiency. DIA is a hub for both airlines.

Kevin Burke, president and CEO of the Airports Council International-North America, said TSA's attempts to increase efficiency have fallen flat. He cited the agency's PreCheck program, which has only 2.5 million people enrolled when it was projected to have 25 million by now.

The agency was so confident about PreCheck and its potential to thin general security lines that it has cut the number of screeners to 42,525 from 47,147 three years ago, according to an Associated Press analysis. At the same time, the number of annual fliers passing through checkpoints has grown to more than 700 million from 643 million. About 30 percent of the 1.3 million passengers who passed through DIA security in February were PreCheck.

While Burke is hopeful about TSA's public commitment to improve its operations, security checkpoint lines remain the biggest problem facing the airport directors he speaks with nationwide.

"There's not enough officers," Burke said. "There's not enough use of PreCheck. There's probably not enough allocation to checkpoints."

Dia tracks

security lines

Denver International Airport has a widget at flydenver.com/security that shows how long you can expect to wait at each of the three checkpoints at the airport. But if you're flying, airport spokesman Heath Montgomery says, check the site early and often.

"We are working to add additional equipment to help us be more precise with our wait time estimates," he said. "However, the lines can change very rapidly during peak travel times, so passengers should check the site frequently."

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